The Oracle Well Girl
by Ruth Gray
Summary: Mariah is a university student who isn't ready for "real life". But she's already grown up. Right? Well, maybe not...
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Obviously, I do not own Peter Pan, or any of the characters. I do however own this story, and Mariah. Also, please review. I have a crazy life and, if people want to read this, I will gladly write it... But if no one wants to read it, then I will spend my time doing things like homework :P Enjoy!

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I was in one of those moods that always come after a day of talking about the future. A solitary, lonesome mood, where I couldn't do anything but try to focus on how cold my nose was instead of the thoughts in my head. thoughts like mortgages, and loans, and taxes, and commutes, and business meetings, and interviews. And somewhere deep inside me I was yelling- "I DON'T WANT TO GROW UP! I NEVER WANT TO GROW UP!"

I mean, how ridiculous. I was almost twenty. I WAS grown up. But, not really. I was still living in dorms, my parents paid for tuition, I still got a monthly allowance from Dad. I was no more grown up then i was when i was 7.

I was so deep in thought, standing on the roof of my dorm building, that I wasn't really aware of the door opening- or anything at all, really- until the presence next to me started talking.

"Can I talk to you?"

I was startled from hearing a voice from outside my head, so I jumped a little. I answered before I even had a chance to think- "Uh, yeah... sure."

"You can't go crazy, okay?"

I finally looked at the person, caught off guard- and just a little wary- by his request. He was probably a little older than me. He was about 4 inches taller than me (which is pretty rare, I am pretty tall) and he had long blond hair, tied back in a pony tail. Peculiarly, he wasn't wearing a shirt. He was tan- surprising for someone so far north, so I almost suspected that he may go tanning. And his torso was covered in tattoos. These tattoos weren't the creepy, gang-banger, metal-head type, though- they were traditional-looking tribal tattoos. He even had a Pocahontas zigzag on his bicep. My automatic favorite, though, was the two suns he had on his left pec, one slightly higher and larger than the other. I had never seen this guy before in my life. But, of all the remarkable features about this guy, the most captivating were his eyes. They were dark green, like a forest, and had this sort of wild shimmer in them.

Finally I answered, "Who are you?"

"What's you're name?" he asked right back.

"Mariah."

"My name is Peter."

"Okay, Peter, listen, are you going to like, rape me, or something?"

'Peter' looked confused at that remark. "No- No... I... I just want to talk to you." He stammered. Well, suddenly this tough, tattooed, long-haired dude seemed a lot more like a scared dog.

"Okay. So, talk. I'll listen."

"You will listen," he said. I couldn't really tell if it was a question ("Oh, you really will listen to me? How great!") Or a command ("Yes, you WILL listen to me.") So, instead of trying to respond, I shifted my weight over my right leg, rested into my hip, and crossed my arms. Probably not the best way to show him that i was all ears, but it would have to do.

He started. "Have you read the book 'Peter Pan'?"

"Yeah, hasn't everyone?" I scoffed, not stating the fact that Peter Pan was my favorite book of all time... Or that I had just been thinking if it at the moment.

And then, he did something I was definitely not expecting- he levitated. He lifted himself about two feet into the air and hovered there, watching me closely and gauging my reaction. "I am Peter Pan," he said.

I just stared in disbelief. That was the most incredible levitation I had ever seen. "Okay, David Blaine, great trick and all, but I should go finish a job application..." I started to leave, but before I was two steps away he grabbed me.

"Don't you believe me?" He said. He was still floating, but now his feet were level with his head, at my height.

"I believe that I took a bad Tylenol, and I should probably call a medic, or my RA, or... I need to go." I tried to leave, again, but he kept a hold on my shoulder.

"How can you not believe this?"

I turned and looked at him, still unbelieving. "Look, man... Peter Pan is, like, eight... "

"I was eight once."

"Okay, seriously, you are crazy and I should-"

"Listen to me!" With that he picked me up and flew- yes, flew- me over to the domed roof of the student center, where he sat me on the edge (with remarkable ease) and proceeded to tell me the following.

"The story of Peter Pan, as made popular by Mister JM Barrie, is in reality a fictional story of my life, with me as the main character, based on what little James knew about me, at the time of 1904. I met James quite on accident, I was actually looking for the girl who was his next-door neighbor, but he saw me and took an interest in me, so I told him my name and that I was from Neverland, and that I was looking for a girl... And he took that little bit and turned it into a play, and then a book, and you know that story. But "Wendy" is fake. That whole story is fake! Well, i mean, he basically got Neverland right, well the parts he talked about, anyways- he did leave out a great lot- but the whole Wendy story is made-up. And, yes, at the time I met James I was eight... But you see- ah, how can I explain this? James portrayed me as leaving to Neverland when I was seven days old. That was a bit of a liberty on his part. I was actually seven years old. See, my mum took me for walks through Kensington garden frequently, and every time I would be visited by Tinkerbell, who was my fairy- meaning she was created when I laughed for the first time- and she lived in Kensington Park. So she would always talk to me about the dreams she had about this amazing place and she would love to go there someday, and no one ever grows up there. So one day I heard my mum talking to another mum about me getting married and being a barrister, so I asked Tink if she would take me to that place, and she did. See, she knew how to get there because she saw it in her dreams and fairies are smart like that. So she sprinkled me with fairy-dust and we flew to Neverland, where nobody ever grows up! That was in 1900."

"But you were eight, four years later when you Met JM Barrie?"

"Yes. See, once I arrived in Neverland and started exploring the island, I came across this incredible object, which I did not tell James about, called the Oracle Well, which you look into and it tells you a vision about the future. And the Oracle Well kept telling me the one vision- a vision of a girl. And I knew this girl had to be back on earth, and for some reason I had to find her, so Tink began taking me back to earth at night so I could look for her. Well, we soon realized that whenever I got back to Earth my body would grow really really fast, trying to catch up for all the time it had lost while I was in Neverland. So we started having to be real careful about when we went so I wouldn't grow up to much. But by the time a met James I had aged a year, almost two, actually. But it has been over a hundred years, and now I only come to Earth once a year, but now I am twenty, but it is ok. Want to know why?"

"Why?" I asked quickly. I had become enraptured. Not only was I part in attention, but I absolutely believed everything he had said. How could I not? He was levitating in front of me!

He drew closer before he answered, "I finally found the Oracle Well girl."

My jaw dropped. I suddenly felt dizzy. I couldn't even speak, I just kept making incoherent noises.

"You are the Oracle Well girl. I have seen your face everyday for the past hundred and eleven years. I know you are. I have been looking for you for over a century. IN the fifties I realized that you might not be in London, so I started looking in other cities, and I have found you here, at a university. I have been looking for you, waiting for you... Please come to Neverland with me."

I couldn't say anything else but, "okay."


	2. Chapter 2

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to the 4 wonderful, lovely, fantastic reviewers, and to those of you who added this story to their alerts and favorites. It means SO much to me! And I am so sorry that this update is almost three months late, but, like I said, I have a pretty bust life. But my semester is over now, so I should be able to update more regularly now! At least till September, anyways... And as long as people want to read it. So, if you like the story, review! That is the only way I know that this is worth spending time on.

**DISCLAIMER** I do not own Peter Pan, or the original characters... those are J.M. Barrie's work of fiction; but this story, and Mariah, are mine.

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Before the word "okay" had barely left my mouth, Peter had swept me up in his arms and began flying.

Of all the thoughts jumbling around in my head, the first one the made its way onto my shaking lips was, "Second star to the right?"

Peter laughed a bit and said, "Kind of. I'm not going to go into the relative placement of stars according to one's placement on earth, but, basically, it's second to the right in London. Here, it's just a sort of bright star. Makes it no more difficult to find, though. I've been making this flight for over a century, I could find my way to Neverland from any place in the galaxy."

I nodded, and a second thought bubbled out. "Did Tinkerbell not come with you tonight?"

Peter chuckled. "Ah, no. This was sort of an unauthorized trip. I've actually already been to Earth once this year, I was supposed to wait another 4 months before I could go back, but this morning I looked into the Oracle Well and saw you so clearly and I suddenly knew exactly where to find you- I couldn't wait."

"I- I mean the flying bit," I stammered back.

"Oh, this. Yes, well… You do need fairy dust to fly, but I brought some along for you. Honestly, I have learned that it is easier to teach people to fly this way. Because now you are used to the idea of being in air and I can just…" he opened his arms and I drifted away from him, but to my surprise I remained suspended in the air and I was matching his speed. He grabbed my hand and turned me over, so we were both facing the right way, and led me on.

From the perspective of an almost-twenty year old who had gone to university, or preschool for that matter, the trip to Neverland is impossible. It is illogical, physically incomprehensible, and defies everything we claim to know about the universe. I never felt at a loss for oxygen, or an extreme temperature change, or any sort of lightheadedness. It seems to me that the trip is less of a physical one, but a metaphysical one. I mean, the journey is initiated by flying, which is a feat yet to be mastered by man without the aid of machine or device, and is concluded on a floating island in the universe which is surrounded by an ocean that had no bottom and rests on no land, but is permanently suspended in space.

All these thoughts and many more, were simmering in the depths of my mind as we approached Neverland, but at the forefront of my thinking was something more like this: "Wow!"

Neverland was remarkably like I expected it to be, but so much more. As we flew, just inches over the water, I could look down and see schools of thousands of brightly colored fish. At times I could even see a larger body darting- a mermaid. The island itself was a massive piece of land which was a series of beaches and harbors on the side we were approaching and a rocky cliff full of caves and inlets on the other side. The island also appeared to be a mountain, sloping gently up at first but turning into a steep, jagged, peak. Only the topmost part of the mountain was not covered in forest. As we drew closer I realized that the top of the mountain was actually a volcano, and I wondered if it was dormant. Peter brought us towards a beautiful crescent-shaped lagoon with a sandy beach around it. As we flew over it he whistled to some figures below- Lost Boys, going fishing! When they heard the whistle and saw Pater they dropped their spears, hooks, and nets, and ran into the forest.

We soared over the green canopy of the jungle, and after about a minute, Peter suddenly pulled me down. We swooped down, breaking through the leaves, and came out in the middle of a ring of trees, all surrounding one bigger tree. The tree in the middle was much larger around than the others, and was knotted and gnarled, with holes and gaps in the trunk. Peter set me down on the floor of the jungle and I took in my surroundings. The large tree was surrounded by a perfect circle of smaller trees (though, even these "smaller" trees were some of the biggest trees I can imagine) and beyond those were even more trees. Up in the branches above was the most beautiful and complex system of tree houses I had ever seen. From out of these tree houses popped the heads of Lost Boys, and even more Lost Boys surrounded my from out of the surrounding forest. Somehow, I had always thought there were only 15 or maybe 20 lost boys, but there were almost 40, maybe even more, boys around me now. They were of ages ranging from 4 to 15, and they were all dressed in leaves, furs, and rags. Their faces and any exposed skin were painted vibrant colors in the most intricate patterns- and many of them had tattoos. Every single one of them, though, had the double sun tattoo I had noticed first on Peter, on the left side of their chest. Even the littlest guy- who couldn't be a day over 4, and who had the most adorable, huge, brown eyes I had ever seen- had it.

When I looked into the distance, I noticed that there was a perimeter around the tree house complex made out of tightly woven vines, grown together braches… it seemed to me that it was almost like a giant nest encompassing the Lost Boys hide-out.

Finally, I circled back around to face Peter, who had picked up little huge-brown-eyes and put him on his shoulders. He just smiled like a maniac at me and said, "Welcome to Neverland, these are the Lost Boys."

I couldn't do anything but laugh. I could barely believe my eyes! I was in the middle of my favorite book of all time. It was everything like I expected, and nothing at all like I expected, all at the same time. Dozens of Lost Boys, all with these tattoos, living in a nested-in tree house complex… It was all so bizarre. Finally I gathered myself together enough to say, "I'm Mariah."

"You're the girl from the drawings!" One boy, probably 9 or 10, yelled out.

"I- What? Excuse me? What drawings…?" I was now rather confused. I had been expecting him to say the girl from the well, but drawings? I looked at Peter for an explanation, but he looked embarrassed. Little huge-brown-eyes tugged on Peter's ear and whispered something to him. Peter's mouth curled into a sly smile and whispered something back to the little boy, and then truned out to the rest of the boys, who were murmuring among themselves now. "Gents!" Peter exclaimed, and all the boys quieted and focused on him, "I believe we need to introduce Mariah to some people!" The group let out a whoop and surged towards me.

I am not entirely sure how I was moving. It was clear to me that I was going over the very tall nest-wall, and then through the trees, at a remarkably fast pace, but I don't recall actually moving myself. I can only assume there was some sort of combination of being carried by this mass of children and flying through the forest, because I never put a foot down. But before I knew it, we came out of the forest and into a town.

This town looked to me like an old colonial port town, like the ones I had visited on my trip to the Caribbean back in high school. Stone walls, cobblestone paths, and every one walking around looked like they had come straight from the 1600's.

"What is this place?" I asked my group of little escorts- and Peter. All together they replied, "The Pirate town!"

"Pirates?" I practically yelled.

Peter looked confused. "Yeah, pirates. Don't you know there are pirates? You said you read the book…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know there are pirates, but don't you all hate each other? I mean you spend all day shooting canons at each other and challenging each other to duels."

Peter laughed. "No, not really. An invention of Mister Barrie's, again. We are quite friendly with the pirates. Come on, you need to meet Hook." With that we began moving again, and again with no effort on my part. All I could think was, "MEET Captain Hook? Where's the fun in that?"


End file.
